Finding Fraser

Emma Sheridan has lost her job and decided to travel to Scotland in search of her very own Jamie Fraser. Nevermind that Jamie is a fictional character in Emma's favorite historical romance series. Emma starts a travel blog to document her journey and heads cross country from Chicago to New York to catch a plane across the Atlantic.
I was a little put off by the blog format at first, but I got used to it. Emma's adventures are filled with just my personal brand of calamity and I was rooting for her from the get go. Fun, funny, and very entertaining.
I bought this for myself for my Thingaversary two years ago, I had read about it somewhere and wanted to read it for myself. Will file on my bookshelves with the Outlander novels.

Excellent rom-com fluff, especially for Outlander fans. It’s just the right blend of serious and silly and “Oh, Emma, no….” It’s one of the few books I’ve seen that doesn’t make fun of fans, and manages to be a love letter to the Outlander novels and to Scotland while not being heavy-handed about it or overshadowing Emma’s journey. I did find her a bit overly shallow at the start (like her Jamie must have red hair), and perhaps a bit naive as well, but hey, I’ve run into those tropes in romance and travel novels, respectively, before. Whatever. Dyer set out to entertain and she certainly succeeded. I was rooting for Emma almost before I knew it.

7/10

Emma is a bit of at ends. She just turned 29 and her life is pretty much falling apart. Since she loves the Outlander book series, and is in love with the fictional character of Jamie (and which of us hasn't been in her shoes with some book or another?), she decides to sell all of her things and go to Scotland to find him, writing a blog along the way.

I just finished this one and couldn't put it down, really and truly! I love happy endings, and I love twists and turns and kind of thinking something was going to happen, but not being sure about it. It's nice and comfy without being boring or entirely predictable. If you've read Outlander, you won't be disappointed with this one. I'm not sure what else to say. It's like chick lit, but show more with a bit more meat on it - but not heavy or tiring at all; I raced through it! There was humor and the characters were very real (the villain Sunshine aside). And look, it's so good, it got its own exclamation marks! Super cute! show less

This book has been out for a while now, but I just refused to buy it because, how good can it be?! I mean, I am one of millions of OUTLANDER fans out there that thinks no one can come close to writing as good as Herself, right?!

Imagine my surprise when I opened my Christmas gift from my husband. My first thought was, as I looked at it and then my hubby, OMG! He’s paying attention when I ramble on and on about OUTLANDER! My second was, SHIT! Now I have to read it, or I’ll hurt his feelings.

Well, I read it and WTH! I just loved it. It was interesting, engaging, funny, sweet and surprisingly very well written.

I enjoyed the heroine’s POV and loved the way author took me on a journey which I’ll never undergo. She made me feel like I show more was there!

If you’re like me and are having doubts about this book, please succumb and buy it. You’ll be so glad you did.

Melanie for b2b show less

The story is about Emma Sheridan, who, at 29, having been fired from her job and with no romantic prospects, drops everything to leave Chicago, travel to Scotland, and maybe find her own Jamie Fraser as in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. She also starts a blog to document her progress.

This book has a cute premise, and I liked the way narrative chapters were interwoven with blog posts. The fact that the blog posts had comments also added to the fun. But I thought the quality of the book was very uneven. The parts about Scotland were sketchy - there she is crying over Culloden, for example, but if you weren’t already familiar with what happened there, you wouldn’t get much information here beyond the fact that many Scots died show more there for some reason or other. And after a very short time in the country, she starts referring to “my beloved Highlands.” Really?

Moreover, early on in the story, she is robbed in Scotland. You would think she would have then taken steps to protect her credit, for example, or to file an insurance claim, particularly since she was in constant contact with her sister, the Chief Financial Officer of a big Chicago firm. But inexplicably, she never takes any of the necessary steps.

Also, since the outcome was obvious, it would have been nice to find out more about her eventual romantic interest, who, it might be noted, only had about twenty minutes of contact with Emma before he became smitten. Instead, a yahoo that Emma thinks looks like Jamie occupies most of the story and most of Emma’s (and our) time. She is so clearly trying to fit this totally inappropriate guy (jerky to the point of caricature) into an Outlander-shaped procrustean mold that it’s hard to fathom why she doesn’t see this herself.

Finally, there wasn’t very much about the Outlander series in this book at all, aside from the Scotland setting and the jokes about kilts. Oh, and Emma’s tendency, whenever anything went wrong, to turn to the Outlander books and chase fantasies from them for solace. Her coping skills leave a lot to be desired.

Still, I think the author shows promise and creativity. Some of the characters, like Morag McGuinty, and Ashwin Patel, are very entertaining. Too bad Emma herself was so lacking. show less

If you have enjoyed the Outlander series, then this is a fun book you should read. Emma really wants a Jamie of her own, and she sets out to find him. I laughed out loud a few times, and I truly enjoyed the descriptions of Scotland. This is a romance and a journey that are both enjoyable.

Finding Fraser is a charming, well-written story about an obsessed Outlander fan trying to find her very own Jamie Fraser. It's actually not so much a romance as a story of self-discovery with elements of a romantic comedy. The heroine is a 29-year-old American who leaves her sorry life in Chicago behind and sets off for an extended trip round Scotland in search of a real-life Jamie Fraser. During her stay in various places (Edinburgh, Stirling, Nairn in the Highlands etc.) she has some funny adventures, meets some interesting characters and gets herself into some trouble.
If you've read at least the first book in the Outlander series (or maybe watched the TV program) (I listened to it on audio and really liked it), you might be more show more likely to enjoy this, as there are obviously quite a few references to the book. It's a lighthearted, sometimes comical story featuring an almost annoyingly naive woman. I couldn't believe she was meant to be 29. She really wasn't the brightest cookie in the jar.
I would recommend this for fans of Outlander, fans of Scotland, or anybody looking for an entertaining, quirky Rom-Com.

There is an audio version available. However, I would recommend reading this in print and imagining the various accents in your head. It's very difficult to pull off English, Scottish and Irish accents with authenticity and not every narrator is successful (yup, that's me attempting to be tactful). I can usually identify accents but I'm hopeless at trying to imitate them. Anyway, I appreciate that the narrator here had a difficult task. She was pretty good at portraying the protagonist's personality, though.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The audio version was purchased by myself. show less